2 Raja-raja 7:16

7:16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah ¹  of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as the Lord had said they would. ² 

2 Raja-raja 11:6

11:6 Another third of you will be stationed at the Foundation ³  Gate. Still another third of you will be stationed at the gate behind the royal guard. ⁴  You will take turns guarding the palace. ⁵ 

2 Raja-raja 12:8

12:8 The priests agreed ⁶  not to collect silver from the people and relieved themselves of personal responsibility for the temple repairs. ⁷ 

2 Raja-raja 13:6

13:6 But they did not repudiate ⁸  the sinful ways of the family ⁹  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. ¹⁰  There was even an Asherah pole ¹¹  standing in Samaria.

2 Raja-raja 15:20

15:20 Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ¹²  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

2 Raja-raja 17:9

17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ¹³  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ¹⁴ 

[7:16]  ¹ sn A seah was a dry measure equivalent to about 7 quarts.

[7:16]  ² tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[11:6]  ³ tn Heb “the gate of Sur” (followed by many English versions) but no such gate is mentioned elsewhere in the OT. The parallel account in 2 Chr 23:5 has “Foundation Gate.” סוּר (sur), “Sur,” may be a corruption of יְסוֹד (yÿsod) “foundation,” involving in part dalet-resh confusion.

[11:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “the runners.”

[11:6]  ⁵ tn The meaning of מַסָּח (massakh) is not certain. The translation above, rather than understanding it as a genitive modifying “house,” takes it as an adverb describing how the groups will guard the palace. See HALOT 605 s.v. מַסָּח for the proposed meaning “alternating” (i.e., “in turns”).

[12:8]  ⁶ tn Outside of this passage the verb אוּת (’ut) appears only in Gen 34:15-22.

[12:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “and not to repair the damages to the temple.” This does not mean that the priests were no longer interested in repairing the temple. As the following context makes clear, the priests decided to hire skilled workers to repair the damage to the temple, rather than trying to make the repairs themselves.

[13:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “they did not turn away from.”

[13:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “house.”

[13:6]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “in it he walked.” The singular verb (הָלַךְ, halakh) is probably due to an error of haplography and should be emended to the plural (הָלְכּוּ, halÿku). Note that a vav immediately follows (on the form וְגַם, vÿgam).

[13:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “an image of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “the Asherah”; NCV “the Asherah idol.”

[13:6]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[15:20]  ¹² tn Heb “and Menahem brought out the silver over Israel, over the prominent men of means, to give to the king of Assyria, fifty shekels of silver for each man.”

[17:9]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

[17:9]  ¹⁴ sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.